Is Vermont becoming the Napa Valley of beer?

By Jason WilsonThe Washington Post

Friday

Sep 8, 2017 at 6:28 PMSep 8, 2017 at 6:28 PM

My brother Tyler and I have driven more than 400 miles to Vermont to stand in line for beer. Despite our best efforts — dragging ourselves out of bed early after the previous day's marathon beer crawl — we are now standing numbers 18 and 19 in the queue of people shivering outside the Alchemist Brewery in Stowe on a cold November morning. Behind us we can see at least 40 more people, including a few we'd met touring breweries in Burlington the day before.

We'd arrived at the Alchemist at 9:45 a.m., but the parking lot was closed with a sign that read "Parking Lot Opens at 10 am . . . Please Do Not Arrive Early." An employee politely but firmly suggested we go get some coffee and come back in 15 minutes. When we returned at 10:02, we were the 10th car in line.

We soon learned you're only allowed to buy 10 four-packs of Heady.

Heady means Heady Topper, the almost-mythic double India pale ale that the Alchemist brews. Heady Topper has scored a perfect 100 from BeerAdvocate, where readers have in years past rated it the top beer in the world (it's always in the top 10). Heady Topper is sold mostly in Vermont in limited production, delivered on specific days to be released at specific times in specific stores, where it sells out in minutes. Beer geeks know which days and times Heady is delivered to small-town general stores and routinely make six-, eight- or 10-hour drives to buy it.

I'd planned this beer tour because I'd figured - and hoped - that Vermont, with its chill and natural vibe, would be the last place that the wine-ification of beer and its subsequent snobbery had taken hold. The University of Vermont is where I went to college, and I picture myself in those years wearing Birkenstocks and a Phish T-shirt. This area has always held a nostalgic place in my heart that's groovy, natural and true. But standing in line at the Alchemist, I worry that Vermont may be transforming into some kind of touristy, theme-park "Napa Valley of beer."

"The line's bigger today because of Petit Mutant," says the earflap guy ahead of us in line. "They're releasing that today."

We're given sample beers, and for about 18 minutes the line snakes along. These hazy, unfiltered IPAs are the prototypical Vermont- or New England-style IPA. My Focal Banger and Tyler's Heady Topper are higher-alcohol beers (7 and 8 percent alcohol by volume, respectively), which normally are not my style. But I really like Focal Banger, a total flavor bomb that's fruity, piney and super hoppy.

The day before, Tyler and I made an epic tour of a half-dozen craft breweries and cideries in Burlington. The city on chilly Lake Champlain, with a population of just over 42,000, is bucolic Vermont's major metropolis. Burlington's breweries are only the tip of Vermont's craft-beer iceberg. The state has the highest number of breweries per capita, pumping out the most craft beer per capita in the United States, with annual sales of more than $100 million.

We began our beer crawl in the city's gentrifying South End, where more than a half-dozen breweries have sprouted in the past few years. But first we took an Uber a little farther south to visit Magic Hat, one of the pioneering breweries of the early craft beer movement - its apricot beer, No. 9, has become a bar staple.

We moved on to Switchback Brewing, where the various beers we tasted were differentiated by the type of hops (Simcoe, Mosaic or Citra hops) and whether they were "wet" or "dry." Around the bend at Queen City, the focus was on English styles, underscoring the city's beer diversity. I really liked the dark, drinkable porter style that's often neglected within the craft beer movement, a Yorkshire ESB (or extra special bitter) called Landlady.

From Queen City, we moseyed across the street to my favorite brewery in Vermont, Zero Gravity. I loved what beer people call its "session beers" - lower-alcohol beers that are made for drinking, such as the Conehead IPA, the Touch of Drei saison and especially the Oyster Stout.

We moved on to Burlington's waterfront, where, as the sun began to set and a frigid breeze whipped across the lake, we settled in at the cozy Foam Brewers and sampled a barrel-aged sour, which the bartender told us was fermented with a citrus fruit called Buddha's hand.

The next morning, after leaving the Alchemist, we head a few miles north from Stowe to Morrisville and Lost Nation Brewing, which sits on Lake Lamoille. We sit at the bar and order burgers along with smoked tofu and buffalo cauliflower to pair with our tasting flight - a perfect Vermont brewery meal.

Lost Nation makes beers you might enjoy drinking with food. For instance, its gose, a sour German-style brewed with sea salt and coriander, is a tart and refreshing pairing with wings or tofu. One of my favorite beers may be its Petit Ardennes, a spicy, fruity farmhouse ale that clocks in at around 4.2 percent abv, about what Bud Light is, but with about a hundred times more flavor.

After lunch, we head about 45 minutes northeast, into the Northeast Kingdom. Hill Farmstead is another legendary brewery, voted the best brewery in the world by RateBeer, the rival of BeerAdvocate.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to the front of the line. Hill Farmstead names its beers after ancestors of the founder, Shaun Hill. Edward is an American pale ale, Harlan is an American IPA, and Edith is a dark farmstead ale.

When we return to Burlington, we ditch the car and make one last visit - a place called Burlington Beer Company, which we find in a random industrial park in a suburb called Williston. Here, we enjoy ridiculously experimental beers: one called Peasant Bread, a brown ale made with wild rice; one called Destroyed by Hippie Powers, a blue-hued IPA made with blue pea flowers; an IPA brewed with a special hops called Barbe Rouge and strawberries, called Peak Nostalgia.

Tyler and I agree that Destroyed by Hippie Powers is one of the best beers we've drunk on our Vermont sojourn. It's the perfect ending to our trip.

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